ABSTRACT
The purpose of the present research is to explore the short-and long-term effects of differential pricing, specifically for textbooks purchased in a campus bookstore (in store) versus over the Internet (online). Researchers such as Yamagishi and Yamagishi have shown that there is a direct relationship between dispositional and situational trust: A violation of dispositional trust results in lower situational trust. Bradach and Eccles argued that people with higher dispositional trust will start with lower expectations that others will act opportunistically. It is also expected to have a negative effect on estimates of profitability: Students who have lower situational trust are expected to think that the publisher and the bookstore are exploiting them. The participants were 72 undergraduate business students in the author's marketing classes. There is, however, no relationship between dispositional trust and situational trust, nor is there any relationship between a lower price online and a lower situational trust.
